Behaviour change consultancy for public health, digital health and wellbeing

I support organisations to understand behaviour, develop effective interventions, evaluate services and programmes, and apply behavioural science in practical, inclusive and evidence-informed ways.

My work brings together health psychology, behaviour change science, public health, digital health, research, evaluation and applied consultancy. I help teams move from broad aims, such as improving engagement, uptake, adherence, prevention, health promotion or service outcome, to clearer behavioural problems, practical solutions and meaningful evaluation.

I work with public health teams, charities, universities, start-ups, digital health companies, local authorities, NHS-related projects and organisations developing products, services or programmes that aim to support health, wellbeing or behaviour change.

At a glance

I support organisations with:

  • behaviour change consultancy

  • intervention development and design

  • evaluation and applied research

  • public health and health promotion projects

  • prevention and wellbeing programmes

  • digital health behaviour change

  • training and capacity building

  • advisory input, retainers and fractional behavioural science leadership

This work is often useful for organisations developing, improving or evaluating services, programmes, digital tools, health interventions, communication strategies or behaviour change products.

Helping organisations understand and influence behaviour

Many health, wellbeing and public health challenges involve behaviour in some way. People may need to start something, stop something, continue something, engage with a service, use a digital tool, attend appointments, follow guidance, build confidence or navigate complex systems.

However, behaviour is rarely changed by information alone.

People’s actions are shaped by capability, opportunity, motivation, emotions, identity, social context, service design, trust, habits, practical constraints and wider inequalities. My role is to help organisations understand these influences and translate that understanding into interventions, services, products, training, evaluation frameworks or recommendations that are realistic and useful in practice.

How can I help

  • I support the development and refinement of behaviour change interventions, services, programmes, tools and resources.

    This may include clarifying the behavioural problem, identifying target behaviours, mapping barriers and facilitators, developing logic models or theories of change, selecting behaviour change techniques, designing intervention components and translating evidence into practical materials.

    This work may be useful when you are developing a new service, improving an existing programme, creating a digital health product, designing public health resources, or trying to make an intervention more engaging, inclusive or implementable.

  • I design and deliver evaluation and research projects that help organisations understand whether a service, programme, intervention or product is working, how it is being implemented and what could be improved.

    This can include evaluation frameworks, logic models, theory of change, process evaluation, mixed-methods evaluation, qualitative research, stakeholder interviews, surveys, evidence reviews, implementation learning and practical recommendations.

    I am particularly interested in evaluations that do not only ask “Did it work?”, but also explore how, why, for whom, under what conditions and what needs to change next.

  • I work with digital health teams and organisations developing apps, platforms, online tools, digital services or AI-supported products that aim to support behaviour change, engagement, self-management, prevention or wellbeing.

    This may include reviewing user journeys, identifying behavioural friction points, strengthening engagement strategies, improving onboarding, developing behaviour change content, advising on intervention logic, or helping teams think through evaluation and implementation.

    Digital products often fail not because the idea is poor, but because the behavioural assumptions are unclear. I help teams examine what users are being asked to do, what may make that easier or harder, and how digital tools can support meaningful change without becoming overwhelming, generic or unrealistic.

  • I support work focused on prevention, health promotion, health improvement and public health behaviour change.

    This may include projects related to lifestyle behaviours, long-term conditions, mental health and wellbeing, substance use, smoking, physical activity, diet, vaccination, screening, service access, inequalities, communication, misinformation or public engagement.

    My approach is grounded in behavioural science, but also sensitive to context. Public health work needs to consider not only individual behaviour, but also systems, environments, access, trust, stigma, culture, resources and inequality.

  • Some organisations need senior behavioural science input at strategic points in a project. I can support teams to clarify direction, review plans, sense-check assumptions, advise on evidence, strengthen proposals, develop recommendations or bring behavioural insight into decision-making.

    This can be helpful when a team already has strong subject expertise, but needs additional behaviour change, health psychology, research or evaluation input.

Who I work with

I work with organisations and teams developing, delivering or evaluating work related to health, wellbeing, behaviour change or public benefit.

This may include:

  • public health teams

  • local authorities

  • charities and social enterprises

  • digital health companies

  • start-ups and innovation teams

  • NHS-related projects

  • universities and research teams

  • behaviour change, health promotion or prevention programmes

  • organisations developing services, tools, training or interventions

Typical questions I help with

Organisations often come to me when they are trying to answer questions such as:

  • What behaviours are we actually trying to change?

  • Why are people not engaging with a service, programme, product or intervention?

  • What barriers and facilitators are influencing uptake, adherence, retention or outcomes?

  • How can we develop a behaviour change intervention that is practical, inclusive and evidence-informed?

  • How should we evaluate a public health, digital health or wellbeing intervention?

  • What should we measure, and how can we understand not only whether something worked, but how and why?

  • How can we build behavioural science into a digital health product, app, platform or user journey?

  • How can we make behaviour change recommendations that are practical for staff, services and users?

Ways of working

Project-based consultancy

For clearly defined pieces of work, such as intervention development, evaluation design, evidence reviews, stakeholder research, behaviour change mapping, training, strategy development or report writing.

This works well when you have a specific project, deadline, funding application, evaluation need or service improvement question.

Retainer-based support

For organisations that need regular behavioural science input over time. A retainer can include ongoing advisory support, reviewing materials, attending team meetings, supporting product or service development, advising on evaluation, sense-checking decisions, or helping teams apply behavioural science throughout a project rather than at a single point.

This can be especially useful for start-ups, digital health teams, charities, public health programmes or organisations developing behaviour change products and services.

Fractional behavioural science leadership

For organisations that need senior behavioural science expertise but do not need, or cannot yet justify, a full-time senior role. This may involve working as a fractional Behavioural Science Lead, Behaviour Change Advisor or fractional Chief Behavioural Officer. In this role, I can help shape strategy, product development, intervention design, evaluation, implementation, research priorities and evidence-informed decision-making.

This type of support can be particularly useful for growing organisations, innovation teams, digital health companies or public health projects that need experienced behavioural science leadership on a flexible basis.

Discuss a project

If you are developing, improving or evaluating a service, product, programme or intervention, and would like behavioural science input, you are welcome to get in touch.

You do not need to have everything fully defined before contacting me. A first conversation can help clarify what kind of support may be useful, whether that is a one-off project, evaluation input, training, retainer support or fractional behavioural science leadership.

Get in touch
Get in touch

Selected clients and partners

I have worked with a range of organisations across the public, academic, and third sectors. Examples include:

  • The Academy of Medical Sciences
  • NHS Digital
  • Suffolk County Council
  • Wakey App
  • Norfolk County Council
  • Smoke Free App
  • Middlesbrough Council
  • ResMed
  • Public Health England
  • Norfolk and Nowich University Hospitals
  • Natural England

Hear from Those I’ve Supported.

  • Chiron App | Development Team

    “Fantastic knowledge of digital health behaviours, and the research behind it. Dorothy provided workshop style sessions to a team building a new digital health app which is focused on changing behaviours - we all found the experience to be very helpful and it has certainly changed our practice/designs.”

  • Suffolk County Council | Dr Angela Fletton, Head of Behavioural Insights

    “I have recommended Dorothy to several professionals across the region. Her technical understanding of behaviour and behaviour change lends itself well to supporting many projects in the public sector. Her knowledge, skills and positive attitude mean that it’s always a pleasure to work with her.”

  • Wakey | Dr Marilis Oeren, Chief Research Officer

    “Amazing work! The work was presented in a systematic (COM-B model as framework) and coherent way. The list of the literature was very useful.”

  • Smoke Free App | Dr David Crane, Founder, CEO

    “Dorothy is a prompt, very professional and reliable consultant. She has a good understanding of factors relevant to uptake and engagement with health apps and the importance of evaluating these to assess effectiveness. I highly recommend working with her!”

  • Open Health Digital Initiatives | Dr Olga Perski, Co-Director, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow,

    “Having collaborated with Dorothy on several projects focused on behaviour change and digital health, I’ve found her to be a very professional and incredibly dedicated researcher who cares deeply about the work she is undertaking. Her qualitative and quantitative research skills are excellent, she has in-depth knowledge of behavioural science, and she can make project findings accessible to multiple audiences. I warmly recommend her.”

  • NHS England | Dan Berry, Head of Behavioural Science

    “Dorothy worked with the NHS England team creating an 'alpha' version of new wellness and prevention services for the NHS App. Dorothy provided iterative, timely, and practical advice, using rapid evidence reviews and behaviour change frameworks to inform agile design. She was excellent at turning potentially off-putting jargon into actionable insights for designers. I would not say this of all similar expert behavioural scientists!”

  • Suffolk County Council | Emma Dixon

    “Dorothy was very helpful in providing us with an hour long workshop at relatively short notice for our first ever youth conference. We wanted to empower young people and get them understand how behaviour change works and how best to use that knowledge in helping change behaviour around them. We had great feedback from her workshop!”

  • Norwich and Norfolk University Hospitals | TOSCA Clinical Team

    “Dorothy was friendly and professional. She demonstrated a good knowledge of relevant health behaviour change theories and their applications, explained them clearly, and worked hard to apply them to the project data in a way that would be helpful to the wider team.”